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Saturday, March 30, 2013

A long, long time ago. I can still remember how the sunshine made me feel inside. I used to play-ay baseball, at a high school in southern California, And two years behind me was this kid Daric Barton.

OK, so I'm not much for making song parodies, but at least I speak da troof. The Oakland Athletics DFA'd a Jordan Norberto, Daric Barton and Travis Blackley yesterday from their Major League roster as spring training dwindles away and Opening Day creeps closer.

Daric Barton was a slight unfortunate for this blogger. Barton is a graduate of Marina High School in Huntington Beach, CA, the high school that just so happens to be my Alma Mater. Barton had seemingly stamped his ticket as an everyday Major League player in 2010 when he posted a .273/.393/.405 slash line, collecting a league leading 110 walks and putting up a bWAR of 5.4. But, after 67 games in 2011, he was diagnosed with a torn labrum and missed the rest of the season. He came back late in 2012, but struggled to the tune of a .204/.338/.292 slash line and a bWAR of 0.3. His spring was looking eerily similar to 2012, so the A's made the decision to send him packing.

Monday, March 25, 2013

This offseason hasn't gone exactly to plan for the New York Yankees. They uncharacteristically backed off of pursuing big time free agents and are trying a "bargain bin" approach for 2013. Then it was released that Alex Rodriguez was going to need hip surgery, again. Then came the Biogenesis mess which - and, of course, this was going to happen - A-Rod was linked too. Then Curtis Granderson took a fastball off of the forearm in a spring training game, breaking said forearm. Then, Mark Teixeira strained his right wrist while working out with Team USA in preparation for the WBC. Last week however, ESPN reported that Tex's injury is a more serious partially torn tendon sheath. Michael Pineda still can't find his way to a mound, and might have the only shoulder that is worse off than Tommy Hanson's, and none of this would be complete without mentioning how Derek Jeter is likely to start the season on the DL for the first time since 2001. Are you with me so far? It's a lot to digest, I know, but this really has been the offseason from hell for the pinstriped ones.